"Father."
Magnus stood up, his eyes eager.
"You must be hungry. Please, allow me to introduce you to Prospero's specialty cuisine!"
He wouldn't dare say how delicious it was, but Magnus was confident it was far better than Nostramo's corpse-starch.
"I am hungry, as well," Caelan said, not wanting to refuse Magnus's thoughtful gesture.
His son just wanted to...
However, when Magnus opened the door, he found an unexpected guest already waiting outside.
He had short gray hair, and his rough skin was a grayish-yellow, resembling aged parchment.
Magnus frowned slightly.
"Tutor Amon, you're looking for me?"
The man shook his head, his gaze passing over Magnus and landing directly on Caelan.
"I'm looking for him."
Magnus subtly blocked his probing gaze.
"What business do you have with my father?"
The word 'father' made Amon somewhat dazed.
As Magnus's tutor, he had diligently taught and raised the red-skinned youth for nine months, yet he had never received such an intimate address.
And this stranger, who had only just arrived on Prospero, could make Magnus willingly call him 'father'. Why was that?
A trace of disappointment stirred deep in Amon's heart, but he still softened his tone.
"Don't be nervous. I mean him no harm. I just want to ask him about some things from the outside world."
Although Magnus would have preferred to cling to Caelan all day, the arrival of this stranger still made many Prosperines uneasy.
They worried the stranger might bring danger to Prospero, and they were also curious about how he had traversed the treacherous, dead forest outside the city.
Their conflicted emotions further fueled the spread of anxiety.
To calm the populace, they needed answers to some questions from Caelan.
Amon had come for this reason.
Caelan said gently, "Let's walk together. Feel free to ask any questions. I'll try my best to answer."
Amon followed the two, carefully choosing his words.
"I am Amon, a citizen representative of the Tizca Commune."
"Caelan. Godfather of the Primarch," Caelan introduced himself briefly.
Amon stared intently at Caelan.
"Are you from another city?"
Caelan answered frankly.
"I am not a Prosperine. Magnus and I are both from Terra."
Amon's heart tightened.
"Have you come to take him away?"
Caelan shook his head gently.
"I came for him, but not to take him away. I came to help him save his home world."
"Terra…"
"Prospero is his home world."
Amon was momentarily dazed.
"You mean us?"
"That's right."
Amon asked urgently, "Do you know how to deal with those Psychneuein?"
Caelan pointed to Magnus beside him.
"That's a question he needs to think about."
"But aren't you his father?"
"If he asks for my help, I will give it my all. But if he wants to try independently, I won't interfere."
"He's a Primarch. He can do whatever he wants, as long as he believes it's right."
Amon fell silent.
He couldn't quite understand this unique father-son relationship.
This father and son were both strange.
They had so easily accepted each other as father and son and naturally slipped into their roles.
But they had only just met!
From the moment Magnus fell to Prospero, Amon had raised him.
He knew everyone Magnus had met, everything he had done.
He was certain that before today, there had never been anyone named Caelan on Tizca.
So how could they have such a deep bond?
He had raised Magnus for nine months, yet Magnus's attitude towards him could only be called friendly, not even one-tenth of what he showed Caelan.
He didn't understand, yet there was a subtle bitterness in his heart.
What was the point of his nine months of raising? Had he been asking for trouble?
Amon concealed his complex emotions.
"Caelan, did you just arrive on Prospero today?"
Caelan nodded, "Yes."
Amon recounted, "Then you probably don't know Prospero's history. Decades ago, it was a paradise world."
"Then the disaster struck. Those monsters we call Psychneuein invaded our world without warning. They attacked Prospero's towns in swarms. All life withered under their parasitic onslaught."
"One town after another was destroyed. Tens of millions of our compatriots perished. Only Tizca remains, barely holding on."
Psychneuein, a species native to the Empyrean, though some speculate they might originate from within the Webway.
Regardless, they do not belong to the material universe.
They attack mortals, feeding on their minds and infecting them, sowing invisible eggs within their psyche.
By the next morning, the eggs hatch and begin feeding on the host's brain.
Initially, the victim only feels a slight headache.
By afternoon, they will fall into agony and madness as their brain is devoured from the inside out.
As night falls, they die, and their skull becomes a writhing mass of fat maggots.
Within a few solar hours, the Psychneuein larvae consume the body completely, leaving nothing behind, and seek a dark place to hide and pupate.
By the third day, they mature, ready to hunt and reproduce.
Such high infection and reproductive efficiency would make even the Tyranids blush.
Although they lack intelligence, relying solely on their reproductive instinct, their efficiency in destroying civilizations is still terrifying.
However, their eggs must parasitize a living creature; plants cannot be targeted.
Thus, Prospero's wilderness still has large areas of lush forest, but the animals within have long been extinct due to the Psychneuein's rampage.
Their preferred food is psykers, as their minds are often more robust, and Psychneuein born from parasitizing psykers are often more powerful than those born from parasitizing mortals.
"Tizca's ability to survive the Psychneuein's ravages relies on ancient psychic arrays and sustainable energy passed down from antiquity."
"Relying on the psychic arrays, the people of Tizca established a psychic barrier to ward off the Psychneuein."
"Sustainable energy provides them with endless power, and they also built large-scale hydroponic farms in caverns within the mountains, achieving 100% food self-sufficiency. The residents here no longer need to risk going outside."
"But if the Psychneuein have already devoured the entire world, then Tizca, a city housing hundreds of thousands of people and thousands of psykers, will inevitably become a delicious feast in their eyes."
"Faced with a sky-darkening invasion of Psychneuein, the psychic arrays probably won't last long."
Magnus, looking deeply worried, introduced the current state of Prospero to his father, completely ignoring Amon's urgent silent hints beside him.
This was his father. Why hide anything?
There were no secrets between them.
Besides, this wasn't really a secret.
Any truly insightful person understood that if all of Prospero had become a living hell, Tizca could not escape unscathed.
"But the people here seem too complacent."
Caelan looked around.
The public canteen was bustling with noise, but the people's faces lacked the sense of urgency one would expect living in an apocalyptic world.
Magnus sighed softly.
"It's been decades since the disaster struck. The witnesses are now elderly. The younger generation, protected by the psychic arrays, have never witnessed the horror of the Psychneuein firsthand. Their memory of the danger has faded over time."
"The fading of this collective memory is a very dangerous sign, yet the Commune, in the name of 'democracy', has allowed this sentiment to spread throughout Tizca."
"They've even cut the maintenance budget for the psychic arrays, diverting resources to building entertainment facilities."
"They even call it, euphemistically, 'seizing the day'."
Though not yet a year old, Magnus's eyes already held the weariness and helplessness of someone who has seen the vicissitudes of life.
Amon coughed lightly, a bit embarrassed.
"Only a few representatives proposed cutting the maintenance budget. The council did not pass the resolution."
The higher-ups weren't lacking in understanding.
Matters of the city's survival were no triviality; no one dared be careless.
The representatives proposing budget cuts were young, thinking that since the disaster was decades past, perhaps resources could be diverted to rebuilding the city, and entertainment facilities would boost morale.
Magnus was still merciless, "In turbulent times, harsh measures are needed. Democracy on Prospero is fundamentally wrong!"
Amon, hearing this, asked incredulously, "You want dictatorship?"
"If it enables the people to survive, why not?"
Whether democracy or dictatorship, it must be adapted to the context.
They are not completely opposed; there is also compromise.
But sometimes, dictatorship is indeed more suitable than democracy.
For example, in an apocalypse, a strong leader and a powerful government often better unite people's hearts and lead them to survival.
A democratic system, even in an apocalypse, can descend into endless infighting, wasting already scarce precious resources.
Furthermore, the decision-making sluggishness of democracy can be fatal.
In the life-or-death moments of an apocalypse, every second counts, but a democracy might argue for half a day over trivial matters.
Amon asked, "But what if we lose our freedom? Is it worth it?"
His rhetorical question made Magnus laugh in exasperation, a laugh tinged with irony and helplessness.
Caelan said, "There's a poem passed down from ancient Terra: 'Life is dear, love is dearer. For freedom, both can be given up.'"
Amon was full of admiration.
"Beautifully said."
Caelan said, "Pure nonsense."
"I don't deny the importance of freedom, but there is an order to everything."
"At any time, survival is the primary need of civilization!"
Amon countered, "But throughout human history, many people have sacrificed themselves for freedom. Were they also wrong?"
Caelan said, "There have indeed been many heroic sacrifices in human history, sacrifices that cast survival aside."
"But these sacrifices are remembered and celebrated not because of their insistence on freedom, but precisely because they used their individual sacrifice to secure the collective's survival!"
This poem, in a sense, is an embodiment of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Survival is the foundation, love is the middle, freedom is the top. They are progressive.
So-called freedom is essentially a spiritual pursuit built upon the guarantee of survival.
Only when the basic physiological and safety needs are met can humans aspire to love or higher-level respect and self-actualization.
For an individual, sacrificing life for love, or abandoning love for freedom, is a personal choice.
As long as it doesn't harm collective interests, they can do whatever they want.
But when it comes to the collective, collective interests inevitably supersede all individual interests.
When the collective interest is threatened, all other interests yield to the most fundamental need: survival.
Only by surviving can one talk about love, belonging, and freedom.
Only by surviving does spiritual pursuit have meaning.
Those who ignore the need for survival and blindly advocate freedom must not lack for physiological and safety needs.
But for those who struggle on the edge of survival, without even food and shelter secured, talking to them about freedom is worth less than giving them a meal.
Basically, it's all caused by being too full.
This is also the situation in Tizca now.
Its residents are too full. They actually equate freedom with survival.
A qualified government has the duty to ensure its people are fed.
In this regard, the Tizca Commune has been very successful.
But the Commune's mistake is that while ensuring people are fed, it did not strengthen their spiritual education.
They are fed, but they don't know why they are fed.
They survived, but they don't know why they survived.
They are fed because they survived.
They survived to perpetuate their survival, not to abandon it for freedom.
Amon's face flushed red.
"That's sophistry!"
"If a state has no ministers who can withstand the axe and offer remonstration, and no external enemies to trouble it, it will invariably perish."
"You neither understand how to be vigilant in times of peace, nor how to thrive in adversity and perish in comfort. Doesn't Tizca have history lessons?"
"Father, why do you ask?" Magnus asked deliberately.
Caelan said, "The only thing humanity learns from history is that humanity learns nothing from history. But the prerequisite for learning from history is having history."
"If you don't even have history, you don't even have the qualification to learn from it."
"Conversely, as long as you have a long enough history, you can always find similar examples."
"I see no sense of crisis in them. Have you already forgotten how your ancestors came to Prospero?"
Amon said, "Of course Tizca has history lessons. We remember our ancestors were driven to Prospero due to persecution!"
Caelan asked, "Then do you understand why they came to Prospero?"
Amon answered, "Of course, for freedom."
Magnus added, "For survival and freedom. It is precisely because they survived on Prospero that they had the right to talk about freedom."
"There's nothing wrong with pursuing freedom. What's wrong is pursuing it excessively."
"Everything, once excessive, will reverse."
"If we cannot survive, what freedom can we talk about?"
Caelan shot Magnus a look of approval.
'That's my son!'
Magnus raised his chin proudly.
He had also learned from his father, like the other Primarchs.
The same thing can be interpreted differently by different people. The key is grasping the main point.
But human thought can never be unified. Different people define the 'main point' differently.
There is never a definitive answer to this.
Caelan didn't expect to change everyone.
He only needed the Primarchs to stay in step with him.
Magnus was already mature enough. He didn't really need Caelan to teach him.
All Caelan could offer him was companionship and advice.
Helping him save his home world was the most important part.
But from the current perspective, the biggest obstacle to saving Prospero wasn't the Psychneuein, but the Tizca council.
"The enemy is within!" Caelan shook his head.
From his perspective, the Tizcans were quite unbelievable.
With a powerful enemy at their gates, instead of thinking about how to survive, they argued about how to gain freedom.
But considering Prospero's history, it wasn't entirely unreasonable.
The original Prosperines were psykers and mutants who had suffered under authoritarian rule.
They harbored a deep-seated hatred for authoritarianism.
So they established communes on Prospero, fully democratic towns.
Over time, freedom became a political correctness on Prospero.
Whoever opposed freedom was opposing the people.
Amon asked in a deep voice: "You say we excessively pursue freedom, yet you criticize our system as completely useless. Isn't that also excessive denial?"
Caelan said, "It's not completely useless, nor have I ever said so. Both councils and dictatorship have flaws."
"But from the current perspective, the council system is indeed the biggest obstacle to survival."
Amon asked, "How much do you know about us? How can you judge us so harshly?"
Caelan looked at him.
"I can tell you, more than you think. For example, you often see nightmares of your hometown burning in raging flames."
Amon's pupils contracted.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I can also prophesy. And if I told you this is precisely the result of unrestrained freedom?"
Caelan wasn't exaggerating.
The fall of Magnus in 40K was not unrelated to his excessive pursuit of freedom.
All the warriors of the Fifteenth Legion were immersed in a culture of freedom.
They were too free, able to explore the Warp almost without limit, so much so that the entire Legion, from top to bottom, indulged in it.
This culture was likely inherited from Prospero.
If you want to speculate conspiratorially, Prospero might have been part of Tzeentch's plan from its very inception.
The pursuit of freedom seemed trivial and harmless, but it was precisely this pursuit that led Little Mag to indulge in freely exploring the Warp.
Fortunately, Magnus is not Little Mag.
Amon's eyes were filled with doubt.
"What evidence do you have?"
"The evidence is everywhere. It was precisely the pursuit of freedom that led to Prospero's current calamity."
"Psychneuein are Warp species. The Veil prevents them from appearing in the material universe."
"Unless someone actively summoned them. And that someone must be a psyker."
Amon fell silent.
.....
30 Chapters [email protected]/DaoistJinzu